Suddenly it was the end of the month and time for us to get home. The time had flown by, a series of drop-offs and pick-ups, snacks, and dinners. But our exit was festive, with several gatherings to round out our Wyoming chapter.
Kirk is now in the new charter school in Alpine, the Wyoming Classical Academy, and that is going well, except for early mornings that required drop-off at 7:45. By the time I saw the kids at the end of the school day, they were both in good moods and ready to snack, play, make art, then have an early dinner, bath, and bedtime.
I was able to go on a field trip with Iris’s day care to the post office, located in a former grocery store, and the back room was very full of packages and mailboxes. And though the Alpine post office is sometimes referred to as “the Pony Express,” there were no ponies present. Just hardworking women and one man.
Since our ‘frig was still loaded with cooked chicken from the rounds of chicken soup, chicken dishes were still going strong.
Our final Friday was a dream come true for me. Sarah and Rex, the couple that built the Kelly Lane house we rented, came for Happy Hour. Sarah toted in a dozen oysters on the half shell from the Jackson Whole Foods and promptly whipped up a mignonette sauce. That is the way to my heart. She had given me some of her garden tomatoes a few days before, and I had snipped some of the herbs that lived in planters outside the library entrance and that all became a tomato tart, with the addition of some organic Romas that provided a base for her tasty heirlooms. We loved hearing all about the history of the house that we had grown to love over the four years of our occupancy, and they loved seeing the marks on the door to the garage where their children Jack and Clare had measured up—just like Iris and Kirk.
The next day was Iris’s ballet class in Jackson and then we hurried down the canyon with some pastries and coffees to try to catch Kirk and Stephen on Kirk’s first kindergarten field trip, a float down the Snake River. Not a bad way to instill a love of nature and moving water in those 5-year-olds.
A busy day. That afternoon we headed to the pumpkin patch outside Melvin’s Brewery, where every family with small children from Alpine was gathered for a fun fall festival. The kids ran wild, fueled with candy and the sense of freedom. So fun to watch. From the sidelines.
The next morning I fulfilled another wish and we moseyed to the Horseshoe Café in Etna for breakfast. I ordered not my usual healthy breakfast sandwich, instead opting for the CFS and eggs (Country Fried Steak, i.e.), which is delicious but on the rich side. But it’s not anything I can order in Pennsylvania. John and Rose split an equally high-cal CFS sandwich and helped me with my plate. The sad news was that Deb, the matriarch of the Horseshoe and the beating heart of the café, succumbed to ALS last February. RIP Deb. Her hospitality legacy lives on but she is missed.
On the Sunday before we left, Stephen’s cousin Sarah and her man Chris came by for a pizza party redux. Sarah and Chris hosted us last summer at their new build in Driggs, but there wasn’t an opportunity to catch them there on this trip. They brought drinks and, as always, wowed us all with their creativity. I had never heard of Long Drinks, a Finnish canned cocktail that was tasty on its own, but something otherworldly when mixed with another spirit. Chris mixed up some tasty options that we shared with slice after slice of pizza that Rose kept coming from the oven.
The next day I cleaned out the ‘frig for good and made a frittata with the remains of our happy hour menu from Friday: chorizo, potatoes, lots of herbs, shallots. It was a good way to go out. We piled on lots of cilantro and the local Shumway Farms plain yogurt, a winner.
I hated to leave Kelly Lane but it is time to move on. The kids are launched and we will just have to wait and hope for a dual-parent work trip to connect again. Or, dare I wish that they come and visit us in PA? Fingers crossed.
